Dream Walker
by Little Lorikeet
Summary: Stella Hanson's dreams are very real, some are fantastic adventures while others leave her afraid to sleep for days after. On her next adventure, she finds herself in the world of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Although she finds herself in the body of a falcon, she still eagerly follows her heroes on their journey to destroy the Ring.
1. Prologue

** Hey guys, just playing with a story idea here. Yes, it is a "girl goes to Middle Earth" story but I am hoping it's a little different. Although I do make references to "Maximum Ride", "Blue's Clues" and "Harry Potter" this is a Lord of the Rings story. The characters and story lines belong to their respective authors. Please review, this will be a long one and I need your feedback to know if you like it. I apologise for the format, it won't stay in the format I typed it in!**

**-Lorikeet**

Just to look at, I was an average 9 year old girl. Nothing about me really made me stand out. It was when I fell asleep that I was no longer ordinary. I am not sure when it started exactly, but I believe it began shortly after my parents began fighting.

They used to just fight at night, when they thought my sisters and I were asleep, but it soon escalated to fighting all of the time. It affected my sisters and I differently. Emma, who was 12, started getting into trouble at school. Usually getting into fights or cutting class.

My eldest sister, Tala, who had just turned 16 started sneaking out a lot, coming home drunk with the reek of cigarette smoke on her clothes. Emma has taken to calling Tala a slut, I don't know exactly what it means, but I called Tala that once when I was mad at her and she actually slapped me across the face. She never dared to hit Emma, she fought dirty and Tala always came off second best despite the age and size difference.

As for me, strange things started happening.

It must have been my way of escaping my rather stressful and upsetting home life, I don't actually know. But when I went to sleep, my dreams were real. When I was really small, the dreams were of simple things, television shows or stories for little kids that I had watched or heard. Mom wrote off my excited renditions of the previous night's dream as an overactive imagination. I believed her, until I came out of a dream where I had been with Blue from Blue's Clues with paint paw prints on my pyjamas. I knew my dreams were real then, but I kept them to myself.

As I got older, Mom started drinking and Dad rarely came home which in turn made me eager to go to bed to escape to whatever adventure my dreams would take me on. The only downside was that as I did get older, my tastes in books and television shows sometimes made my dreams a little more frightening.

When I was seven, I learned that if I got injured or died in a dream, then I felt the pain as though it was really happening. This was a rather terrifying revelation after I had managed to fall through the ice during an Antarctic expedition and drowned in the frigid water. The last thing I remembered was the water rushing into my lungs before waking up in my bed, drenched, coughing up water and freezing cold.

That little incident left me too afraid to sleep again, but I couldn't hold off forever. Luckily, my next adventure was much more pleasant. Getting injured or killed in a dream made things awkward sometimes. I once woke up with a nasty black eye after getting hit by a bludger while playing Quidditch during my Harry Potter adventures.

There was also the morning Emma came into wake me up and screamed bloody murder when she saw my blankets and pyjamas soaked in blood, without a scratch on me. That was actually a rather painful experience, it was when I was visiting the world of Maximum Ride and got disembowelled by an Eraser.

The night I started my next adventure was an ordinary Tuesday. Ordinary as I got home from school to find no one home, as usual. There was no food in the house and I had used the last of the money in my piggy bank to by food last week. By the time I went to bed that night, everyone was still out so I went to bed hungry.

Miserable and cross, I pulled the blankets over my head and cried myself to sleep.


	2. Of Rabbits and Ponies

**Hey everyone, sorry I've taken a while to get this update up. I've been going through physical therapy at the moment so I haven't been up to writing much. Sorry if there a few mistakes in here, I'm on some pretty strong painkillers at the moment.**

** Anyway, thanks for the reviews so far. Become1withSealand, I am 20 years old and I will try to do longer chapters, I promise :) **

** Enjoy, and let me know what you think of this chapter :) **

When I awoke, my first thought was that I was still buried under my blankets until I realised the "blankets" were solid. Funnily enough, my first reaction was not to panic, I was used to waking up in odd situations by now.

My prison was very cramped and dark. After a bit of wriggling and moving my head, a cracking noise gave away my predicament. I was in an egg! Great, I have been through this before when I hatched as an owl in the Legend of the Guardians. I wonder what bird I am this time?

There was movement and noise outside of my egg, I guess my bird parents realised I was hatching. With a sigh, I began pressing my beak against the crack. Hatching is actually very exhausting work, it took a while just to force my beak through.

The only noise I could make right now was a shrill peeping. From past experiences, I had learned that animals didn't have languages like humans did, unless it was normal in the world I was currently in.

To put it simply, in the Legend of the Guardians, I could speak to the other owls in English. I had a feeling now, that in whatever world I was in now, this wasn't the case. I still didn't know what world I was in yet, it may take months to figure it out.

Through the hole in the eggshell, I could see a bird watching me with big, dark eyes. As my own eyes finally focused and my vision cleared, I saw it was a falcon, a peregrine falcon. Oh goody, they can fly really fast!

I don't know how long it actually took to get out, but it involved a lot of effort and swearing on my part. Once I was out though, I learned I had two siblings, their fluffy down was almost dry which meant they had hatched before me.

My feet were huge compared to my body, it felt like trying to walk with skis on as I stumbled closer to the other hatchlings. I was still wet and it was cold outside the egg. The three of us were basically helpless, huddled together in the nest which appeared to be on a sheer cliff face. Note to self, stay away from the edge.

Before my down even had the chance to dry, we were already being offered food. It sounds rather gross, eating regurgitated prey, but it actually tasted good when you are a bird. Besides, it is food, no matter what way you looked at it. It was either eat what I was given, or starve. I highly doubted I could convince my falcon parents to whiz by McDonalds and pick up a cheeseburger. Actually, was there even a McDonalds here? I still wasn't sure where I was exactly.

I won't bore you with the details of the next few weeks, for it only involved being fed, being smothered by my siblings who irritated the Hell out of me and growing feathers, which was a little uncomfortable.

My real home life wasn't all sunshine and butterflies either. Dad got arrested for punching a bouncer at a club and Tala got kicked out of the house after Mom found out she was pregnant. Emma and I spent that night curled up together in her bed, hiding under the covers while Mom screamed at Tala. She literally screamed herself hoarse.

I had really began to dread falling asleep as a falcon chick as I knew I would awake to the nightmare that was my real life. Only two mornings ago I had woken up to find Emma in my bed, crying her eyes out, Mom had slapped her again.

However, when my flight feathers finally came through, I cheered up considerably as my two chick siblings and I were learning to fly. My previous experience as an owl made this quite easy although the speed and agility of a falcon took a little getting used to. Sadly, while we were practicing flying and hunting under the watchful eye of Momma and Papa falcon, I could see no visible landmarks or clues that told me where I was. We seemed to be in the middle of nowhere.

It wasn't until after I decided to go out on my own that I found out where I was. The direction I took wasn't completely random, I found a river and decided to follow it, hoping I would eventually find some sort of settlement.

After a day of flying and one night in a tree, I flew over some scattered farms. The occupants appeared human but didn't seem to have any machinery at all, maybe I was in the Middle Ages?

By midday, I had come across a village by the river. It was full of people, oddly dressed people. The men wore cloaks and I am sure I saw a few of them carrying daggers, the women wore dresses of varying degrees of shabbiness. I perched on a shop sign and watched the crowd, they spoke English. If I could have smiled, I would have, at least I can understand these people.

As two men walked into the shop, passing underneath me, I heard one of them say "Bree", I'm sure he did. Was I in Lord or Rings? Where was the Prancing Pony? Despite my fabulous eyesight, I couldn't see it anywhere as I peered up and down the street. I was crushed, maybe Bree was just a coincidence. The sign I was standing on creaked in the wind slightly. Hang on a minute.

I looked at the sign, almost hanging upside down to read it. There it was! The Prancing Pony! The excited screech I let out by accident made everyone in the vicinity look at me, but they didn't stare for long, I was only a bird.

Bree seemed quiet, the gate was still in one piece, so hopefully I haven't missed the hobbits. Maybe I should go and look for them? It was better than just hanging around here. Besides, I needed to hunt.

With one last look up and down the street, I spread my wings and soared up high above the village, on the lookout for prey. Normally, peregrines hunted other birds, catching them in flight. But I preferred to hunt rodents, I was more skilled at it due to hunting them as an owl.

The forest was very quiet, no birds and no small animals everywhere. Even the insects were silent. The Nazgûl must be around, even I felt a deep sense of dread as I flew. Movement to my left caught my eye and I circled, a small rabbit was trapped in a snare. Perfect, my dinner was already caught.

Tucking my wings in, I dropped into a dive. The struggling rabbit had no idea I was coming as I stretched my talons out, ready to strike. It squeaked when I hit it, but the critter died instantly, my talons buried deep in its body.

I didn't have time to enjoy my meal though, a soft laugh disturbed me. A man emerged from the trees, my beak almost dropped open in shock. I knew this man, it was Aragorn! He looked very similar to Viggo Mortensen, but his hair was darker and the facial features were obviously different. But I still recognised him. He looked rather amused.

'That was my rabbit.' He said to me, not coming any closer.

_ Yeah, "was" your rabbit. It's mine now._

In defiance, I stripped a piece of flesh off the rabbit and swallowed it, not taking my eyes off him. I was hungry and would fight him for it. As he came closer, I puffed my feathers and raised my wings slightly, trying to make myself look bigger.

'Give me that.' He tried to shoo me away and barely snatched his hand back before I sunk my beak into a finger. I tried to fly off with the rabbit, but it was heavy, and I had forgotten it was still caught in the snare.

My vision suddenly went black as something heavy covered me and shoved me to the ground. Aragorn had thrown his cloak over me. I screeched with rage as I felt him pick me up, using the cloak to shield himself from my beak.

He uncovered my head, keeping his fingers out of beak range. I was furious, who did this guy think he was?

'You are a savage little thing.' he said to me, studying me closely.

_ A little closer and I can bite your nose._

'Tell you what, I will share it with you.' Why was he talking to me? Did he know I could understand him?

Without thinking, I nodded and his eyes widened with shock.

_Oops…_


	3. The Hobbits Arrive

** Hey guys, I'm back! Just moved house and only had the net connected today :) I think this chapter is longer than the others, it looks like it is. Anyway, hope you enjoy it and please review. I love hearing from you about this story :D Sorry about the paragraphs, if someone could tell me how to make them STAY in the paragraphs I put them in I'll love you forever!**

'Can you understand me?' Aragorn asked incredulously. I nodded again, there was no point pretending. 'If I put you down, will you fly away?'

_ No, you have my rabbit._

I shook my head this time, he still looked rather shocked when I answered him again. He seemed to believe me for he set me down. Great, now my feathers were all ruffled. Preening feathers was very tedious and probably one of the biggest downsides of being a bird. This would take ages to fix!

'How is this possible?' He asked me, kneeling in front of me. I shrugged my wings as best as I could, I can't explain it to him. 'Are you male or female?'

_ Idiot._

'Sorry, are you male?' Aragorn realised his mistake. I shook my head firmly, making him laugh. 'Alright, you are female, then.'

He took the rabbit from the snare and stood up.

_ Oh, no you don't. Mine!_

I latched onto it with my claws, he held the rabbit up, with me still attached. 'I meant what I said, I will share it with you. Come.'

He held his forearm up to me, wanting me to get on. Well, I guess it would be more comfortable than swinging from a dead rabbit. Besides, I wanted to go with him, he must be going to Bree.

I hopped onto his arm, it was lucky his sleeve was thick enough to protect him from my talons. With the rabbit in one hand and me on his other forearm, we set off.

'My name is Strider…' He began but was interrupted when I let out a noise that sounded somewhat like a disbelieving snort. 'Alright, it is not my real name. But it is what I am known as in these parts. I assume you have a name, but I am not up to playing guessing games right now.'

He had set up a small camp nearby, a fire was already burning. I preferred my food raw, so I was pleased when Aragorn gave me my own piece before preparing the rest of it to cook for himself. Of course, I finished eating long before him and set about fixing my messed up feathers.

Vaguely, I wondered why he risked a fire if he was trying to avoid being seen. It was daylight though, which would make it harder to see. Somehow, there was little smoke and the way he cooked the rabbit suppressed the smell of the meat. Aragorn clearly knew what he was doing.

'You are a very unusual falcon.' Aragorn said suddenly. 'For all I know, you could be a spy.'

I huffed at him and turned my back on him with my beak in the air, very insulted.

'When you puff your feathers like that, does it mean you are angry?'

_ Angry. Cross. Irritated. Downright pissed. Pick any one you want, Rangerboy._

I glanced back at him, still keeping my body facing away to make my displeasure at being called a spy clear. My antics only served to amuse Aragorn, who decided I was alright for now and even apologised to me. I would have to convince him I was trustworthy.

He packed up camp as the sun went down, I watched him from my perch in a tree. How in the world can he get so much into that backpack? Once he was all done, I swooped down and landed on it.

'Are you coming with me, then?' Aragorn asked, I wonder if he feels silly talking to a bird? I nodded at him, as if I would leave now!

If he was surprised, he didn't show it. I jumped onto his shoulder when he bent to pick up his pack. Apart from a brief glance at me, he didn't object. The sun was going down, my sight wasn't as good at night. If the moon was out, I could see pretty well. But tonight was cloudy with no moon. Once the sun set, I was basically blind. But Aragorn moved through the forest with ease, making my ability to navigate my house with no lights look like child's play.

The gate was shut once we reached Bree, but Aragorn simply climbed over it. I wasn't sure if the hobbits were here on not yet. My dreams didn't always play exactly to the book, movie or television show. The main aspects were there, but the minor details often changed. It made it more interesting, I guess.

Bree looked a little different at night and at ground level, it took longer to get to the Pony on foot than by air. There were very few people on the streets now. The curtains at the Pony were drawn, but some light showed through. Strider opened the door, revealing a lot more activity inside. It was quite busy, most of the occupants were men. Some glanced at Aragorn when he entered but quickly looked away once they saw him. Aragorn ignored them and went to the stairs, sparing a glance for a short fat man carrying drinks. It wasn't until we reached the stairs did I realise that was Butterbur.

Aragorn didn't stay in his room, just set his pack down and went back downstairs, me still perched on his shoulder. It wasn't until he had sat down at a free table near the back did he actually talk to me.

'Now we wait.' He said softly, stretching his legs out and lighting a pipe. Without a word, Butterbur placed a tankard of some sort of alcohol in front of him. Inwardly, I cringed. I hated the smell of alcohol, my father always reeked of it.

It was warm in here, I was tempted to doze off. I kept shaking myself awake though, I didn't want to wake up in my bed yet. Firstly, I wanted to at least wait until the hobbits arrived. Secondly, I wasn't sure what I would wake up to. I never was.

When the hobbits arrived, I knew it was them right away. I could pick out Sam easily, sticking close to Frodo who looked a little nervous. Pippin and Merry were a little hard to tell apart, I couldn't see their faces right now as they were party hidden by the two hobbits standing in front of them..

Aragorn was watching them closely as they spoke to Butterbur and were seated at a table nearby. They were clearly very pleased when their food arrived. I almost groaned when I saw the blackberry tart, it was my favourite food. Well, blackberries were. I didn't care in what form they came.

You know, for the small group trying to avoid unwanted attention, they were doing a great job of drawing a lot of it. It was mainly Merry and Pippin having a little too much fun. It seemed ages before Frodo finally noticed Strider watching him.

As expected, Frodo stopped Butterbur to ask him who Aragorn was but I couldn't hear the reply from where I was perched. It was far too noisy to hear whispered conversations.

'That hobbit has consumed far too much drink.' Aragorn muttered to me, his attention on Pippin at the bar. 'It has loosened his tongue and he appeared to be a chatterbox before he got drunk.'

Frodo's gaze followed Aragorn's, I could see the hobbit's face pale when he heard Pippin regaling some keen listeners at the bar about Bilbo's birthday party, almost to the part where the old hobbit vanished in front of everyone.

I tell you what, those little hobbits can move when they want to. Frodo sped across the room and grabbed Pippin by the shoulder.

'Pippin!' Frodo cried as Pippin spilled some of drink down his front.

I didn't see exactly what happened next, my view of the hobbits obscured by the larger men surrounding them. But I did see Frodo disappear, so did Aragorn for he sat up straighter when the hobbit vanished into thin air.

Chaos erupted, Aragorn seemed to be the only one who kept calm. He stood up, grabbed Frodo who had reappeared under a table and hauled him up the stairs. Damn, Aragorn's eyesight was better than mine, I hadn't seen Frodo reappear.

Aragorn was not happy with him, judging by the way he shoved the hobbit into his room. I flitted over to a bedpost to watch. Frodo stood facing Aragorn, realising he was cornered.

'What do you want?' Frodo asked, he sounded scared.

'Are you frightened?' Aragorn asked him. I hated that part of the story, as if being dragged off alone by a man much bigger than you is going to leave you feeling happy.

'Yes.' Frodo replied.

'Not nearly frightened enough, I know what hunts you.' Aragorn's tone was short as he snuffed out candles with his fingers, I tried that once and burnt myself.

'What do you want?'

'A little more caution from you.' Aragorn pulled his hood down and looked at him. 'That is no trinket you carry.'

'I carry nothing.'

'Indeed.' Aragorn countered, the two glaring at eachother, neither of them noticed me gleefully mouthing their confrontation in silence to myself.

I could hear shuffling outside the door. If I could hear it, Aragorn definitely could. And fair enough, he opened the door as three ridiculously armed hobbits charged though and bailed him up. Sam was especially upset. Frodo's companions had a wooden stool and a candle holder against Aragorn's sword but they were fiercely determined to protect their friend.

Aragorn put the sword away and ushered them inside, checking the hall before shutting the door. Again, I was fighting off sleep while Aragorn convinced them to allow him to guide them to Rivendell. I assured myself I would go to sleep after the Ringwraiths came.

The hobbits moved their things into Aragorn's room and settled down to sleep. Aragorn sat by the window. Once the hobbits fell asleep, Aragorn noticed I was still awake and called me over. I landed on the back of his chair.

'Some very dark creatures will most likely come after them tonight.' He told me, looking back out the window. 'Can I trust you to be silent? We cannot draw attention to ourselves.'

To be honest, I don't know how I will react. I hoped I would be brave enough, but Ringwraiths were supposed to be terrifying. I nodded, assuring both him and myself I would not make a sound.

For another hour, we waited, neither of us moving. I could sort of feel when the Nazgûl drew near, everything felt very quiet and still. A horrible feeling of dread made my feathers stand on end.

When they came galloping up the road, I am proud to say that I didn't make a peep. Instead, I dived under a cloak on the floor, it belonged to one of the hobbits. The Nazgûl were even worse than I expected! If I could cry, I would be bawling my eyes out.

Under the cloak, most sounds were muffled but I could hear the screeches when the ruse in the hobbits' room was discovered. The noise woke the hobbits up and I heard Aragorn explain to them what the Ringwraiths actually were. I didn't care enough to listen, I just wanted them gone.

It seemed like forever that I was hiding under the cloak with my wings over my head and my eyes shut tight. I felt the cloak lifted off me to see Aragorn peeking under it.

'You can come out now.'

I wriggled out, feeling rather ashamed of myself for being a pansy. Aragorn held his forearm out and I hopped on.

'The Nazgûl bring terror to even the bravest of soldiers.' He assured me. 'You stayed quiet, that is all that mattered.'

'Uh, Strider?' Pippin spoke up. 'Why are you talking it?'

'Because she can understand me.'

The hobbits managed to calm down enough to go back to sleep, except for Frodo who looked to be deep in thought. I was once again perched on the back of Aragorn's chair. By now, I was exhausted, I had to go to sleep.

Yawning widely, I fluffed my feathers and tucked my head under a wing.

'STELLA!' I jerked awake when Mom screamed up the stairs. 'ARE YOU UP?'

Yikes, it was 6am! What the Hell was she doing up already? I bet she run out of vodka.

'STELLA?'

'I'M UP!'

I groaned and crawled out of bed, it was a school day. After I was dressed and ready, I headed down to the kitchen, hoping to get some breakfast. Emma was down there, going through Mom's purse. She looked up as I entered.

'The old hag passed out.' My sister explained. 'Here, lunch money. We'll grab breakfast on the way to school.'

She handed me $15 and pocketed the other 15. Neither of us felt the slightest bit of remorse taking money out of Mom's purse, we had to survive somehow. Emma and I always shared money or food we managed to scrounge up. Tala had kept everything to herself.

We rushed out the door as soon as we could. The only thing worse than our mother when she was drunk was when she had a hangover.

I couldn't wait to go back to Middle Earth, Nazgûl and all


	4. I REALLY Don't Like Ringwraiths

** Yeah, yeah, I know. This update has taken ages to put up. I just could not get the motivation to get it done! I'm still not happy with it, but at least I have something for you now. Thanks for everyone who has reviewed, it's because of those that I slugged through this chapter. I hope you enjoy it :)**

**3 Lorikeet**

**CHAPTER THREE**

That night, I went to bed with a black eye. I had mouthed off at Mom and got backhanded. As I grew older, I was really beginning to understand what Tala meant when she often said "fuck my life" and mumbled it to myself as I climbed into bed.

There was an icepack wrapped in a dish towel and a small piece of chocolate on my pillow. Emma had left it for me, dipping into her chocolate stash to help me feel better. I knew where she kept the stash but I never stole from her. She was hiding it from Mom, not me. With the icepack pressed against my face, I tried to get comfortable enough to fall asleep.

Movement nearby made me snap my eyes open, I was back at the Prancing Pony. Aragorn was getting the hobbits up. It was still dark but the hint of dawn was just visible in the sky.

I tapped on the window with my beak, wanting to go outside and hunt while they got themselves together. Merry was the one who noticed me and opened the window. It felt good to get out and stretch my wings.

As I glided over the gate, I could see the entire thing on the ground from where the Nazgûl had crashed through it. There was a small group of people gathered there, it looked like they were removing the gatekeeper's body.

But I focused on hunting once I reached the forest. Either another bird or small animal, it didn't matter which I found first. In the end, it was a pigeon that fell victim to my talons. I snatched it out of midair, coming down on top of it.

I settled on a high tree branch to eat in peace while keeping an eye out for the Nazgûl. I don't think they were around though, I hadn't seen them while up in the air. By the time I got back, the hobbits and Aragorn had acquired Bill the pony. He was the sad, weedy little thing with an ill-kept coat and clearly underweight. But he had a kind eye and waited patiently while he was loaded up.

When I landed on top of Bill, Aragorn came over.

'Any sign of them out there?' He asked me quietly as he fastened another sack to Bill's harness. I knew what he meant, the Nazgûl.

I shook my head, there had been no sign of them at all. It didn't mean they weren't out there though. When it was time to head off, Aragorn asked me to fly above them as I would most likely see them before they did from the air. I was happy to do it. I hoped it would convince Aragorn fully that I wasn't a spy for the enemy.

So I circled above them, high enough to both keep a eye out enemies and to avoid hearing the hobbits almost constant complaining about how hungry they were. Pippin quietened down after I dropped a dead, bleeding squirrel on him.

On the third day, I had been keeping an eye on a scrawny-looking crow that seemed to be following us. Crows were not overly common out in the forest, preferring to stay near towns and roads where food was plentiful and easily come by. And those ones were bigger with glossy black feathers.

This one was smaller than usual but the one thing that really made me suspicious was the fact it never made a sound. Crows were noisy, this one was silent. It kept getting closer to the group and I don't think Aragorn had noticed it yet.

So, I lined it up and dived. I loved the speed peregrines got when they dived, there was nothing else quite like the feeling of speeding through the air in a freefall. When I hit the bird, it did squawk. I dropped the carcass in front of Aragorn and landed on a nearby branch, feeling rather proud of myself.

Aragorn nudged the dead bird with his boot, flipping the limp form onto its back. He gazed at it for a moment before looking up at me.

'It was following us?' he asked, I nodded. 'These birds usually work in flocks, I have not heard of one working alone. Good catch.'

To say I was ecstatic was an understatement. I received so little praise at home so to be told I did a good job made me extremely happy. Only just did I manage to prevent a little happy dance on my perch. I'm sure that would have looked a sight.

Unfortunately, Aragorn took us through the marshes with those Neekerbreeker things. I remember reading something about them in the book, but they weren't in the movie. The Neekerbreekers chirped non-stop but I still found the midges more annoying, they bothered me enough to keep me fastidiously preening my feathers clean of the horrible little bugs. When we camped, I went to the highest perch possible to avoid the worst of them. My companions weren't so fortunate and they also had to deal with mud.

We spent a couple of days navigating the marshes, it wasn't overly fun. With Aragorn leading us, we avoided other people. There weren't even that many animals out here either.

But finally, we left the marshes and the land began to turn more hilly. Aragorn pointed out Weathertop, I looked at it with a great deal of foreboding, I knew what was coming. But I could not interfere, I had learned long ago that interfering with the main parts of a story was a BIG no no.

I knew that if I somehow stopped Frodo from being stabbed, then he would be hurt in some other way, maybe even killed as the story-universe tried to rebalance itself. Unfortunately, I had to let it play out as it normally would.

The approach to Weathertop was rather boring though, the most exciting thing to happen was coming across a stream and I had a bath. If you have ever seen a bird take a bath, they look rather ridiculous. The hobbits found me rather amusing, but I didn't care, it was Heaven.

Aragorn actually allowed us to camp that night.

'Do you have to eat that here?' Merry complained as I pulled apart a squirrel not far from where he was eating. I puffed my feathers slightly before pointedly ripping off a particularly large piece of squirrel, glaring at him as I swallowed.

_ Yeah, like watching you shovel food into your trap isn't cringeworthy._

He seemed to get my message as he didn't say anymore. But he mumbled something under his breath, I caught the words "falcon" and "attitude". Aragorn appeared to have heard him though for the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.

Finally, about 6 days out from Bree, we reached Weathertop. I flew in high, wide circles above it, trying to spot any Nazgûl. There were none around right now but they would arrive tonight.

Even though it was dark, I went with Aragorn, perched on his shoulder. I didn't want to be with the hobbits when they lit the fire and drew the Nazgûl to them. He was searching for them, but they seemed to be everywhere and it was hard to locate them exactly.

'This is going very badly, very quickly.' Aragorn muttered to me.

_ No shit, Sherlock, I've known this was coming ever since you pointed out that stupid hill._

But I couldn't voice this out aloud, I would have to settle for mentally ranting to myself. Both of us froze when the shrill cry of Nazgûl cut through the air, Aragorn said something that sounded like an Elvish swear word. Do elves actually have swear words?

Shaking my head to clear it of those rather useless thoughts, Aragorn was rushing back to Weathertop. When he spotted the remains of the hobbits' fire, which had not been fully stamped out, he grumbled to himself but used it to light a torch.

He rushed up the broken stairs, the noise of a fight getting louder and louder. I cringed when I heard the unmistakable scream that meant Frodo had just been stabbed. As he rushed into battle with the torch in one hand and sword in the other, I flitted up to perch on Merry's shoulder and dived into his hood to hide.

Once the Nazgûl had been driven away, I peeped out of my hiding spot to see everyone was crowded around Frodo. My first thought was that the movie really didn't do Frodo's injury justice. He looked like Hell, the poor guy. It almost looked like he was fitting.

Aragorn picked him up and carried him, the hobbits scrambling after him. I felt sorry for them, they were very worried about their friend. I stayed perched on Merry's shoulder, watching the scene unfold before me.

Once the sun began to rise some tense hours later, Aragorn set Frodo down and pulled some leaves from a pouch attached to his belt. He then looked at me.

'Uh…darn, I really need to give you a name.' he said before holding up the leaves. 'These are leaves of the _Athelas _plant, it may help Frodo but I need more. Can you try and find some for me?'

I looked at the leaves, they looked like any other leaf, but they had a rather distinct smell I was sure I could remember. With a nod, I unfurled my wings and soared upwards. While searching, I grabbed a mouse which had been facing the wrong way as I glided through the trees.

After a good deal of searching and finding probably every kind of damn leaf in the woods, I finally found the plant I was looking for. The lovely scent erasing any doubt it was the right one.

As I wasn't sure how much Aragorn needed, nor if we could get more of it later on, I carried as much as I could in my beak and talons back to camp. Aragorn had water boiling by the time I landed beside the fire and placed the leaves in a pile.

'Now, I am impressed.' Aragorn praised as he threw some of the leaves into the boiling water. '_Athelas _is not common around here anymore.'

_Oh? You sent me on a wild goose chase then? Next time, go find your own damn leaves.'_

While Aragorn tended to Frodo, I perched up above them, keeping watch while preening my feathers. Sam was making the others some breakfast but I could see he was distracted, his eyes flicking to Frodo every few seconds.

What can I say about the journey to Rivendell? Frodo grew weaker with each passing day as Aragorn kept the group moving. It was stressful but I still preferred it over my real life, which sucked more than usual.

Mom had a boyfriend now. Emma and I both hated him. His name was Brian and he was a very creepy man. Once Mom bought him home, he never left! And there was a funny smell coming from the basement, it made Emma and I sick. We didn't know what it was, the door was locked and Brian threatened to kill us if we went down there. On the fifth night after he arrived, Emma started to sleep in my bed with me. She told me Brian had been coming into her room at night. My room had a lock on the door, hers didn't. Just as I was settling down to sleep though, I discovered that Emma had hidden a large knife under the pillows. I gaped at my sister, what the Hell?

'If he comes after you I'll gut him like the fucking pig that he is.' Emma hissed, wrapping an arm around me and making me lay back down. 'Go to sleep, Stell.'

I had laid down, trying not to cry, but Emma knew and held me tighter. Life sucks and then you die, right?

That next morning, I helped Emma move her bed into my room. I didn't mind sharing a bed, but we decided to share a room for safety.

It was winter now, Mom didn't even notice that Emma was wearing a new winter jacket and boots. Last year, Emma's old jacket and boots barely fit her so I had been saving money whenever I could so we could get her some new clothes, I didn't want her to freeze.

She gave me her old clothes, they were a little big, but at least they would last me a few years. Emma cried when I gave her the money, she didn't know I'd been saving it and to thank me, she bought me a small teddy bear with the change.

I was so depressed about my home life that it was affecting me in my dream world too. I was quiet and kept to myself, flying above the group. Aragorn noticed and even asked me about it. But I couldn't explain and he had his hands full with a dying hobbit.

Each day merged into the next, my mind was elsewhere. The other day, at school, I had been called to the office where a nice lady asked me funny questions. I didn't know why she was talking to me. It was hard to speak to her though. In real life, I was very small for my age, had a speech impediment and was very shy around people I wasn't very comfortable with. I still struggled to speak to my own mother! Emma was the only one that knew I could be a real chatterbox.

Emma had someone come and see her at school too, she didn't know what was going on either. She told me he was very nice but asked her weird questions about Mom and even about me.

The monotony of Middle Earth was broken one evening when the sound of hooves behind us broke through the cold air. Aragorn rushed us off the path, well, he rushed the hobbits as I was perched on his shoulder. We hid in thick undergrowth, watching the road. I knew who was coming, sort of. It was either Arwen or Glorfindel. I hoped it was Glorfindel, I like Arwen and all, but Asfaloth is not her horse. Either way, I finally get to see an elf!

A stunning grey horse came into view, the rider was Glorfindel. It had to be. He was pretty, but definitely male. Aragorn was delighted to see him and launched himself out of our hiding spot to greet the elf.

Glorfindel reined Asfaloth to a halt before Aragorn even moved, how the heck did he know we were there? He had dismounted by the time Aragorn reached him and the two greeted eachother in Elvish.

_ Hello? Subtitles!_

Elves were freakishly tall, that's the first thing I noticed. Of course it was, being a shortass myself. I could see his pointed ears and he carried a sword that I swear would be as tall as me in my human form.

Glorfindel looked at me and asked Aragorn a question in Elvish.

'We had a slight disagreement over the ownership of a rabbit.' Aragorn replied in Westron. 'She has been with me since.' Aragorn looked at me. 'This is Glorfindel. Glorfindel, this is…bird?'

I cuffed him with my wing.

'Look, when I come up with a name you actually like I will call you by it all you want.' Aragorn snorted.

'She understands you?'

'Yes, and she has proven herself loyal so far.' Aragorn told him as the hobbits and Bill came closer. Frodo smiled weakly as he was introduced to Glorfindel.

Glorfindel explained he had set out from Rivendell nine days ago to search for our group. To be honest, I wasn't overly interested in the conversation, I wanted to say hello to Asfaloth. When I hopped off Aragorn's shoulder and landed on Glorfindel's, the elf was a little surprised but didn't object.

Asfaloth was awesome. He was a huge horse and sniffed me curiously.

_ Whoa there, buddy. That nose is a lethal weapon when you're my size._

But apart from whuffing my feathers out of place, he didn't hurt me. While the others were talking though, Frodo almost passed out. Sam was having to hold him up.

'Frodo needs to rest!' Sam growled angrily.

'We need to get him to Rivendell.' Glorfindel replied. 'Frodo, you can ride my horse. He will outpace the enemies horses easily, all you need to do is sit tight. Asfaloth will not let you fall.'

Frodo argued about leaving his friends behind if they were attacked and was adamant about not getting on the horse. For a sick person, he was pretty darn stubborn. It wasn't until Glorfindel pointed out that the enemy would follow him if Asfaloth bore him away did Frodo finally agree to be placed in the saddle.

Glorfindel lead the way, I was now perched on Bill, it was too dark for me to fly. The hobbits struggled to keep up with Glorfindel, I was tired but at least I was on a pony and managed to sleep for a bit. It wasn't until first light that we were allowed to stop for a rest. The poor hobbits dropped to the ground and feel asleep almost instantly.

I was wide awake and went hunting, Glorfindel was on watch when I got back, a dead squirrel in my talons. He was silent as he watched me tear apart my breakfast. Glorfindel didn't let the others rest for long, waking them shortly before noon.

We travelled all day, Glorfindel keeping up a quick pace while I circled overhead keeping an eye out. It was hard though, the trees were thick and I could barely see the group below me, let alone Nazgûl in the distance.

By nightfall, Glorfindel and Aragorn had no choice but to allow the hobbits to rest, they were asleep on their feet. As soon as the sun rose, we set out again. I took my position above them up in the air. The area was clear until late afternoon when I spotted what looked like shadows on the ground. After investigating, I saw that they weren't shadows, it was four of the Nazgûl.

I almost did a back flip as I turned my body in the air to speed back to the others. It was go time, people, now I had to decide if I would follow Frodo or stay with the group. I swooped down under the canopy and screeched, landing on Aragorn's shoulder.

I'm not sure if it was the fact that my feathers were standing on end or I looked freaked out, but Aragorn knew what was wrong. The Nazgûl were here!

Glorfindel lead the hobbits down a steep slope, I was still on Aragorn's shoulder, he was bringing up the rear. We could hear horse hooves now and they were moving fast. The hobbits couldn't run very fast, Asfaloth hadn't even needed to break into a trot. Bill did though, his legs were far shorter than those of the Elvish horse.

Our little group froze as the screech of the Nazgûl sounded behind us. Behind us, up on the hill we had just stumbled down, was a Nazgûl. It was the first time I had really had a proper look at one. They were similar to how the movie portrayed them, but the movie didn't make you feel the dread and fear that radiated off them like a furnace.

'Fly!' Glorfindel called out to Frodo. 'Fly! The enemy is upon us!'

_ Uh, excuse me? I am the only one here that can "fly"._

Frodo, the big idiot, didn't ride forward. He was staring at the Nazgûl, a faraway expression on his face. When Glorfindel ordered Asfaloth forward, I had made my decision and launched myself off my perch after the horse as he bolted forward.

_ Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap._

It was the only thing going through my head as I flew above Frodo and Asfaloth. There had been four Nazgûl on the hill, more of them came out of nowhere, sort of like when you piss off a nest of hornets.

There were only seven after Frodo but Asfaloth was super fast, the black horses struggled to keep up. I couldn't see the remaining two Nazgûl, this seemed to be taking after the book events and I was struggling to remember what happens exactly.

I could see the Ford now by my heart sank at the sight off the missing Nazgûl racing to cut Asfaloth off. The horse seemed to notice them too and dug deeper into the ground, putting on a tremendous burst of speed.

Frodo had his eyes shut, clinging tightly to Asfaloth's mane. I watched from above as the Elvish horse cut right in front of the Nazgûl. Seriously, the gap was so narrow I was sure even I would have trouble squeezing through.

Asfaloth splashed across the Ford, leaped nimbly up the bank on the opposite side and scrambled up the rocky incline. They were across but not out of danger yet. At the top of the incline, Asfaloth turned to face the riders. He neighed fiercely and struck the ground with his front hooves.

I landed on a nearby tree branch as the Nazgûl entered the water. Stupid things, their horses were basically screaming at them that entering the water was a bad idea but they didn't listen. As expected, once the nine of them reached the middle of the Ford, the water rose with frightening speed.

There was a loud rushing noise that sent the black horses mad, the Nazgûl had no control over their spooked mounts as the wall of water came crashing down on them. I could see the horses on the wave, not as clear as in the movie, but they were there.

I felt bad for the horses as they were washed downstream, they weren't evil, just forced into a life of slavery to evil creatures. They would drown, the Nazgûl would unfortunately escape that fate.

My attention was drawn away from the raging water by a thump, Frodo had fallen to the ground. I fluttered down and landed by his head, he was still breathing but was unconscious. Asfaloth nudged him with his nose.

_ I doubt that will work, Asfaloth. All we can do now is wait._

**There you go, guys. I think this is the longest chapter yet. Hopefully, the next one won't take as long to write up. Please let me know what you think :)**


	5. Shaken

**Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry times infinity. Things have really been crazy for me. I've been going through physical therapy and it is a lot more painful and stressful than I expected. I'm still not a 100% but here is a little something to tide you over for a while and to assure you I have not forgotten about this story :)**

* * *

**CHAPTER FOUR**

Asfaloth and I didn't have to wait for very long, maybe five minutes before we could hear horse hooves. I was very relieved that Frodo would finally get help, Asfaloth neighed loudly, ears pricked and listening.

Three elves on horses came trotting over, I didn't know any of them and none of them spoke Westron. Instead, they spoke to eachother in rapid Elvish while one of them picked up Frodo.

I wasn't sure if they were ignoring me or simply didn't notice I was there since they remounted their horses and took off again, Asfaloth following behind. I flew above them as the horses galloped towards Rivendell. As worried as I was about Frodo, I was also very excited to finally see the Elvish city.

I wasn't disappointed. It looked beautiful in the movies, in real life, it was hard to describe just how stunning it really was. The stress that I had been feeling due to the shitstorm going on at home eased a little. This place was so peaceful and quiet.

When Frodo was whisked away, I didn't follow. I doubted they would want a bird in there and honestly, I wasn't keen on watching Elrond dig a piece of metal out of Frodo's shoulder. So I picked out a nice tree to settle down on, it was a hard choice, all of the trees were nice! I would have to hunt later but for now I had some serious preening to get through while I waited for Strider and the others to arrive.

Despite my earlier misgivings, I managed to fix my feathers and have time to go and hunt. The elves had plenty of birds I could have caught but I doubt they'd appreciate me picking off their quails so I headed out of the city.

As I soared through the air, I could see the dead horses of the Ringwraiths, there was no sign of their riders. Those poor horses, some of them had broken limbs or necks, one horse's hind leg was bent completely the wrong way.

I didn't dwell on the dead animals, I was depressed enough already and I really needed to hunt before the sun went down. While on the search for prey, I kept an eye out on the horizon for my companions but couldn't yet see them.

My dinner for that evening ended up being a lizard I caught sunning itself on a rock. I didn't often eat reptiles but was too hungry to be fussy and they didn't taste that bad, really.

I settled on a tree branch for the night, my perch gave me a good view of the city and of the elves going about their everyday business. While I waited for the others to arrived, I decided to have a little time for myself. I needed to think. Things were getting dangerous at home, turns out Brian is an angry drunk and worse than my Dad. Emma was sick last night and he called her a filthy little pig after she vomited all over herself. Poor Emma, she was really ill, I have never seen someone turn green before. Actually, that is a lie. I accidentally turned Luna green when I was in the Harry Potter world. I had been intending to change the color of her sweater and it didn't go so well. Professor Flitwick wasn't overly impressed when he had to show me how to change her back.

* * *

Something was wrong when I woke up as my human self. It was still night time for a start, the room was dark. But I could hear shouting and men stomping around the house. Hands grabbed me and I screamed. Well, I tried to. A hand slapped over my mouth, it was Emma.

'Shh, it's me.' She hissed in my ear and removed her hand before pulling me out of bed. 'Come on.'

She pulled me into the closet and shut the door, we huddled together, pressed against the back of the closet.

'Emma, what's going on?' I whispered to her. 'I'm scared.'

'I don't know.' She replied, her voice was steady but I could feel her shaking.

Both of us held our breath when we heard someone try to open our bedroom door, it was locked since it was night time. I started to cry when I heard the door being smashed open, Emma shushed me. We were terrified, who the fuck was in the house? There had been a series of shady characters visit our house at all hours, but not this many and they were never this noisy.

The light was flicked on, it seeped through the gap under the closet door.

'This is their room, they must be hiding.' An unfamiliar man's voice said, there must be more than one person in the room. Emma's grip on me tightened, they were looking for us!

It was inevitable that they find us. In hindsight, the closet was probably not the best hiding spot. The door was wrenched open, it was a cop. What was he doing here? He knelt down to look at us, his gaze flicking back and forth between me and Emma.

'It's alright, girls.' He said to us. 'I'm with the police, how about you come out of there?'

I wasn't moving unless Emma did first. I didn't want to come out, it was better in the closet. Shouts still sounded from downstairs but I couldn't hear what they were saying. The cop said his name was Peter, he asked our names but neither of us answered. I didn't speak because I rarely spoke in front of strangers anyway, Emma was just wary of him. Luckily, he made no move to pull us out.

In the end, he persuaded Emma to take his hand. I started to cry again as he pulled her away from me.

'Stell, come on, it's okay.' Emma coaxed me out, I clung to her tightly. There were police everywhere, red and blue lights flashing through the windows. I didn't understand what was going on.

Emma and I sat on my bed, looking at my alarm clock I saw it was only 4 in the morning! Peter sat on Emma's bed, opposite us.

'Now, girls, your mother and her partner have been arrested and are going to jail.' Peter told us. 'We are taking you to your grandparents, they have temporary custody over you as of last night.'

'We have grandparents?' Emma voiced my question. We had been told that neither Mom or Dad had any family.

'Your mother's parents.' Peter explained. 'They are very anxious to see you. How about you get dressed and pack your bags?'

We were leaving? I didn't know whether to be happy or scared, what if our grandparents were just like Mom? Emma got up to get her clothes, I followed close behind. Normally, she doesn't let me in the bathroom while she's in there, but she knew there was no way I was staying with the cops by myself.

We got changed and Emma stuffed our things into a duffel bag. Yep, everything we owned fit into one small bag. Peter took our bag and lead us downstairs, Emma clutched my hand tightly.

There were more police in the house, some of them looked at us as we passed. In the kitchen, the basement door was open. Men and women in those yellow Hazmat suits were standing around.

'What was in there?' Emma asked Peter. 'It smells funny.'

'There is a drug lab down there.' He told us. 'They are about to dismantle it.'

Our front lawn looked like a parking lot, there were cars everywhere. I couldn't see Mom but Brian was sitting in the back of a cruiser and a cop was talking to him. He saw us and started shouting.

'You fucking little brats! This is all your fault!' he roared. 'I'll…'

He was cut off as the cop slammed the door shut and stood in front of the window, blocking his view of us. Peter ushered us over to a dark blue car and let us into the back seat. Another cop was sitting in the driver's seat, a pretty woman with dark red hair. She told us her name was Belinda.

Belinda handed Emma a brown paper bag as Peter got into the front passenger seat. In the bag was two cheese sandwhiches, two apples and two juice boxes. We hadn't eaten since breakfast the day before and were starving.

'We are taking you straight to your grandparents' house, it'll take about 45 minutes to get there.' Peter told us.

Emma and I wolfed the food down. I don't know about Emma but I felt a lot calmer now that the hunger pains were gone, it was one less thing I had to worry about. I was still nervous though and chewed my nails as we left the city and headed for the suburbs.

As dawn was breaking, Belinda pulled into the driveway of a large two story house. We were in the suburbs, it looked like something out of a television show. Peter let us out of the car and two people came out the front door. An older couple that I have never seen before. So this was our Mom's Mom and Dad?

Peter and Belinda spoke to the man while the woman came over to speak to us, I hid behind Emma, peeking at the the lady who was supposedly our grandmother. She looked kind.

'Hello.' She said to us. She was smiling, as though she was happy to see us. 'I am your grandmother. You can call me Nanna if you feel comfortable enough, but you can just call me Edith if you'd prefer. That's your Poppy over there, his name is David.'

'I'm Emma and this is Stella.' Emma sounded shy, wow, she must be nervous. 'Stella doesn't talk much.'

'Well, how about you both come inside and have some breakfast?'

We get breakfast too? This was better than home already. Peter and Belinda said goodbye to us, giving Emma a card with their phone numbers on it. Once they had driven away, Emma and I followed our grandparents inside.

The house was very clean, warm and felt like a home should. Edith placed a big stack of pancakes in front of Emma and I. There was icecream, berries and maple syrup to go with it. I didn't take any food until Emma did.

'Mom never told us about you.' Emma said finally.

'We didn't know about you two, either.' David replied. 'Not until the police contacted us a few weeks ago.'

'Us two?' Emman pressed. 'So you knew about Tala?'

Edith sighed, she looked very sad.

'We haven't spoken to Jenny for a very long time.' Edith explained. 'She fell in with the wrong crowd and was pregnant with Tala by the time she was 14. When Tala was a toddler, Jenny decided that we were "cramping her style" and yes, they were her own words. She took Tala and left, we didn't hear from her again.'

'You're not missing much, she's a shitty Mom.' Emma grumbled.

'Language.' David scolded, but he didn't look angry. 'Now, as for sleeping arrangements. We guessed that you two would prefer to share a room, at least for a little while?'

'Yes.' Emma replied, I just nodded.

'Good. We have twin beds set up for you in the same room. If you want your own rooms after you have settled in then just say so.'

Emma frowned.

'Settle in? How long are we here for?'

Now that is a very good question, Emma. She was asking the questions I wanted to.

'Emma, your Mom is in a lot of trouble.' Edith said gently. 'She has been charged with fraud, extortion, drug trafficking, child abuse and neglect, child endangerment, assault and has quite a few arrest warrants already outstanding.'

Sounds like Mom is a busy drunk.

'You'll be staying with us for now, if you went into the system you would most likely be split up and we didn't want that to happen.'

Shit, really? I didn't want that to happen either. I need Emma!

Emma and I listened as we were told we were being enrolled at new schools as well. It was too far to our old schools. Neither of us actually cared. I didn't have any friends and Emma was a popular target for bullies.

After breakfast, Edith showed us our room. It had been freshly painted with a pale yellow colour. There were two king sized single beds, each with its own bedside table and lamp. We had our own bathroom as well. Two desks and chairs were against one wall and each desk had a laptop computer on it! Edith explained they were for schoolwork only, but Emma and I were still excited. We always had to use the library or school computers for our homework. At least now we wouldn't have to battle our way through snowstorms or rain to get to a computer. Our room even had a small, flatscreen TV sitting on the chest of draws.

Edith left us alone for a little while, we were grateful for that. It had been a very stressful couple of hours. The whole situation felt very surreal. Emma and I lay together on one of the beds, trying to make sense of everything.

'So, what do you think?' Emma asked me.

'I don't know.' I answered honestly. 'They seem nice.'

'Yeah, I think things have changed for the better, Stell.' Emma replied.

* * *

I jerked awake, back in Middle Earth. My first day with my grandparents had gone well. They had left us alone, but assured us we were welcome to join them when if we wanted too. I had gone to bed that night with a full stomach and clean pyjamas, something that didn't happen very often.

The sun was rising in Rivendell and I soon realised why I had awoken. Strider, Glorfindel and the hobbits were back. I had a quick stretch and feather fluff before swooping down to land on the Ranger's shoulder, he looked pleased to see me. It then hit me, I never saw Gandalf arrive. Either he never got here, or he is a ninja wizard and I just didn't notice.

I had to go and hunt, hopefully I would be able to meet Elrond, Arwen and Gandalf later. When I returned an hour or so later, I found Glorfindel. He was was brushing Asfaloth and I landed on the fence.

'Ah, have a good hunt, little Shadow?' he asked me. I cocked my head to one side. He laughed. 'Do you like that name, Shadow? It fits, seeing as you follow Aragorn everywhere. I am not sure where he is right now.'

I did like that name, actually. Much nicer than being called bird. Merry called me birdbrain once. And only once, I nipped him on the ear for that. Birdbrain indeed. At least I didn't have hobbitbrain, which seemed to be concerned only with food.

Glorfindel talked to me as he tended to his horse, he told me a bit about Rivendell, pointing out some of the main buildings. When he was done, he offered me his arm to hop on.

It was very quiet in Rivendell, Elrond was still with Frodo, the hobbit was still unconscious. He wouldn't wake for a few days. So I either spent the next couple of days exploring Rivendell or hanging out with the hobbits. I did see Aragorn, he introduced me to Arwen. She was so pretty. And Glorfindel had told him that I was now answering to Shadow.

Life in the real world was looking up too. I started at the new school, with new clothes and Edith actually _gave _me money for lunch! I was so nervous but my new teacher was very nice. Emma liked her new school, too.

Edith and David didn't bother me about not speaking to them. Emma had told them that I had trouble speaking. They discussed with me about seeing a speech therapist, I didn't even know they existed!

I decided to give it a go, after a lot of encouragement from Emma. If I didn't like it they weren't going to force me to keep going. What did I have to lose?

**Please review and tell me what you think. It is a short chapter but it was a little hard to write as Stella isn't with Frodo while he's being tended too. I really hope I can get the next chapter out a lot sooner. Have patience guys, I do want to keep writing this story! 3**


	6. OMG, I forgot About Legolas!

**Surprise! Bet you didn't see this coming! Yes, another update :D Only a shortish one though but hopefully they'll get longer once the Fellowship actually get going. This chapter was so hard to write so I hope it reads okay. Sorry if there is any really bad spelling mistakes, my mind is really not on track at the moment...**

* * *

**CHAPTER 5**

Even though I knew Frodo was going to wake up, I still felt a sense of relief wash over me when I heard the news that he finally did. The hobbits in particular were extremely happy. Sam had a smile on his face, all traces of the anxiety he'd been feeling was gone.

I was with Merry and Pippin when Sam bought Frodo down to see them, they were stuffing their faces while I was preening. While the hobbits had their happy reunion, I looked up at the windows, knowing Elrond and Gandalf were up there. Fair enough, I saw them briefly before they went out of sight.

I hadn't officially met Elrond yet and that was my very first glimpse of Gandalf, he was a very elusive man. Right now though, I wanted to see Bilbo so I followed Frodo and Sam, knowing they would be meeting with him.

With my eyesight, I spotted the tiny, frail hobbit before Frodo did. He was sitting on a bench, I landed on a tree branch where I could watch everything. Frodo was so happy to see his uncle, it made me sad that I didn't have any uncles or aunts. My mother was an only child and I had no idea about Dad, wasn't sure I wanted to know really. My grandfather seemed pretty cool so far, though. He had a huge vegetable garden out in the back yard and was preparing it for Spring, he was teaching me how to grow things. Emma wasn't interested, she didn't like dirt and bugs.

And Edith was the sort of grandmother you only hear about in stories, she spoiled us rotten but could also pull us into line when needed. The good part? She and David never hit us. We learned this one morning when racing eachother downstairs and managed to break a lamp. When Edith came to see what the noise was, I started to cry and Emma looked ready to bolt. Both of us were convinced a slap to the face was imminent.

Instead, we got a scolding, had to clean up the mess and as punishment, had to vacumn the house. I did upstairs, Emma did downstairs. It was the strangest punishment we'd ever had.

I am ashamed to admit it, but Emma and I began to purposely play up after that, trying to see just how much we would get away with. Swearing was the main one, Emma and I both had potty mouths. But we also misbehaved, trying to bait a response that we were used to.

But Edith and David never rose to it. We had been given chores to do every day, simple things like help with the dishes and keep our room clean. When we were naughty, which was pretty much all day, everyday, we got more chores.

Washing windows, vacuuming, shovelling snow, dusting, washing dishes, sorting laundry…Edith always came up with something. David also took our TV out of our room a number of times as punishment. We were exhausted after two weeks of this and managed to settle down.

Sure, we weren't being hit anymore. But we weren't getting away with things either. Spend two hours cleaning windows and suddenly swearing at your sister isn't that appealing anymore. Yes, Emma and I still fought like normal siblings. But she was bigger than me so my only resort was usually to swear or spit at her.

But enough of my real life, I had a feast to get to!

* * *

I was perched on Glorfindel's shoulder as he walked into the Hall for the feast. There was people everywhere, mostly elves but I could see guests of others sorts as well. I finally got to meet Elrond and Gandalf.

Both of them were quite curious about me, asking me yes or no questions so I could answer them. It would see Aragorn had told them a lot about me. I was in awe of Elrond, Gandalf not so much. He reminded me of Dumbledore so I was sort of used to the powerful wizard thing already.

Elrond allowed me to remained perched on the armrest of his chair. You could tell just by looking at him that he was powerful, I wondered if the twins looked anything like him. I would so like to meet them!

The fact that Elrond was so old was beyond my comprehension. I couldn't remember how old exactly but it was a significant number and all my childish mind could do was jump to the conclusion that he looked good for an old guy.

Arwen was sitting a little way down the table, she was so beautiful all dressed up for dinner, like an angel. I wished I could look like that. I think Aragorn and the others would be very surprised to find out what I really looked like; a runty, skinny girl that could barely string two words together.

Aragorn was nowhere to be seen, he was probably off doing Ranger stuff. What that stuff was exactly, I had no idea, but Aragorn wasn't the type to go around announcing what he was up to.

I noticed Frodo talking to a very important-looking dwarf, I think it was Gloin. Always one to hear a story, I hopped over the backs of the chairs to listen. Gloin glanced at me, so did Frodo.

'Oh, this is Strider's bird, Shadow.' Frodo explained. 'She can understand the speech of men, I believe she is keen to hear about the Dwarf-kingdom too.'

I nodded eagerly, Gloin's eyes widened slightly but he didn't seem to mind having another keen listener.

* * *

Gloin was a great storyteller, I was actually disappointed when the feast was over. Elrond and Arwen lead everyone to yet another hall, I was on Frodo's shoulder now. There were no tables in here and the room was lit by an enormous fire.

I went to listen to the minstrels play, I had decided to perch on Glorfindel's shoulder again. I was getting tired and didn't really want to listen to Bilbo harp on about his Ring. Despite being drowsy, I did perk up when a man entered the room. The hobbits didn't notice him, but I sure did. Aragorn was back!

I launched myself off Glorfindel's shoulder and shot towards the Ranger, landing on his offered arm. It was then that I saw them. Identical twin elves! Elladan and Elrohir were actually here!

They looked a lot like Elrond, but younger, which didn't really make sense come to think about it.

'Shadow, this is Elladan and Elrohir. They are Elrond's sons.' Aragorn introduced me, I was still staring at them, they were a mirror image of eachother.

'So you did get a pet, argh!' Elladan had reached out to touch me, which I was fine with until he called me a pet. So I nipped him. Not hard enough to draw blood but enough to let him know I meant business.

'She is easily offended.' Aragorn laughed. 'See the puffy feathers? That means she is rather cross.'

I stayed with the twins for a while but was growing increasingly tired, Bilbo was reciting his poem and it was lulling me to sleep. Despite my best efforts to say awake, I decided to pack it in and headed for a tree branch to sleep.

* * *

I was up at daybreak and went for a hunt before having a bath in one of the ponds. It was a beautiful morning and I felt very happy. The elves were going about their day while I perched on a rock, letting my feathers dry in the sun while I arranged them all.

As I was fixing a stubborn wing feather (Ever hear of bad hair days? I have bad feather days, they suck) my attention fell on a small group of blonde elves dressed differently to the ones I'd seen already.

One of them was wearing a circlet on his head. Hang on a minute, that has to be Legolas! Oh my God, if Emma found out I was in Middle Earth and didn't search for Legolas, she would hit me upside the head. She LOVED Legolas. Actually, she loved anything Orlando Bloom related which made watching movies with her a very painful experience.

She used to have a huge poster of Orlando as Legolas on the wall in her room. Used to, right up until the time I was pissed at her enough to draw on his face with a Sharpie. Emma was furious, Dad had to pull us apart.

The real Legolas looked different than in the movies, but then, all of the characters did. But they were pretty damn close. A bell echoed around Rivendell. Of course, it was the morning of the Council!

It wasn't hard to find, I just flew above the city until I saw them and flew down to land on the back of Aragorn's chair. Gandalf, Frodo and Bilbo weren't there yet, so I wasn't late. I looked around at the others, Legolas was already seated with his kin.

_ Sorry I drew on your face with a permanent marker…_

Gloin was there with some other dwarves, I picked out Gimli, he was the only dwarf there that had a red beard. Most of the others were elves, but I did see Boromir. He was studying the other guests too.

Elrond and Glorfindel were conversing quietly with eachother, I fixed the last of my wayward feathers just as Gandalf and the hobbits entered. Honestly, I was not looking forward to the Council, it went quickly in the movies but I'm sure this would follow the book and take several long, boring hours.

And fair enough, my mind had wandered off on its own journey shortly after Elrond finished the introductions. I was not interested in this, reading it myself had been a pain, now I had to listen? Wait, no I didn't. I was a bird, no one expected me to do anything.

With that happy thought, I settled in for a doze, only half listening to what was being said. The noon bell, signalling lunch made me jump slightly. Everyone was silent, this must be just before Frodo said he'd take the Ring.

I heard and saw Sam hiding in the bushes behind Elrond, looking over at the archway, I spotted two hobbits peering around the edge.

'I will take it.' Frodo stood up, the Council members looked at him, Gandalf looked rather sad. 'But I do not know the way.'

I watched as Gandalf, Boromir, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli pledge their allegiance. Shortly joined by three hobbits that stubbornly refused to leave Frodo. I am still not sure how much Pippin understood of what this journey entailed.

Of course, I wanted in and landed on Aragorn's shoulder. No one argued me coming along, they had no idea I was actually a nine year old girl, not a falcon as they thought. Never mind though, let's get this show on the road.

* * *

**Please review, I love reading them and they keep me going with the story :)**


	7. I Hate Mountain Climbing!

** Hey guys, here is Chapter 6. It is another filler chapter, I'm afraid but they get to Moria in the next chapter so you have something to look forward too. As for my physical therapy, I managed to take a few steps unaided today, hurt like Hell but I did it!**

* * *

**CHAPTER SIX**

Ha, let's get this show on the road, indeed. Nope, we had to get organised first. Fair enough, I suppose. The others did actually need to pack for the trip and I think in the book it was almost two months before we were to head off.

Luckily, my dream world didn't follow the same time constraints that my real life did. I didn't actually have to wait out every single day of those two months. It took a little bit of getting used to, especially the times where months would pass in the dream world while barely a week went by in my real life.

I saw this as a good thing, I wouldn't be stuck in one adventure for years.

My regular life had taken an interesting turn, Mom wanted us to come and visit her in prison. Emma and I had laughed in her lawyer's face when he spoke to us about it, thinking he was joking. He wasn't and we stubbornly refused, we could barely stand the sight of her as it was.

In the end, he guilted the both of us into going. I've never been in a prison before, there are a lot of guards and locked doors. I didn't like it, at all, and stayed close to Emma. Mom refused to see David so one of the guards took us through to some sort of common room.

It was visiting day so there were quite a few families here.

'Emmy, Stella!' Mom saw us before we saw her.

And fair enough, she was seated by the wall, dressed in pale green prison clothes. I grit my teeth and followed Emma over to her, now that I was here I realised that this was a very bad idea. Emma was grumbling about being called Emmy, she hated that nickname and I would often call her that when trying to wind her up.

Emma tolerated a hug from Mom, I couldn't stand her touching me and shoved her away, putting on my best scowly face. She was too cheery, she was only like this when she was about to go psycho bitch. Problem was, having Emma and Mom is such close proximity to eachother was a bad idea. Since I rarely spoke in front of her, I didn't provoke Mom as much.

To describe Emma and Mom's relationship is like gasoline and a match. Emma had Mom's temper while I preferred the passive aggressive road. I flicked my gaze between the two of them, Emma was pulling on her hair, a major warning sign. Oh dear Lord, they are going to have a blow up.

Mom asked Emma some questions, not even bothering to talk to me since she knew me well enough she would struggle to get a response. But my speech therapy was going quite well. It was very hard and I didn't speak much in public, but I was making an effort to speak to David and Edith more.

Emma basically grunted one word answers, she didn't want to be here anymore than I did. It turns out Mom had a reason for us being here and it wasn't because she missed us, didn't surprise me in the slightest. She had been told by her lawyer that the police were going to be interviewing Emma and I to collect more evidence on the case and she was urging Emma to twist the truth.

'You want me to lie to the police?' Emma hissed softly, I pushed my chair back a little, shit was about to go down.

'No, just don't tell the whole truth.' Mom pressed, Emma was furious, I could almost see the steam coming out of her ears.

'So you abuse and neglect us, bring strange men home, drink so much that I'm sure your blood has been replaced by vodka and you expect us to lie for you?' Emma snapped, loud enough for people around us to turn and look. 'Like Hell we will lie, you selfish bitch, you deserve to rot in prison!'

BANG!

I threw myself out of the chair just in time as Mom launched herself across the table at Emma, knocking her to the floor. Mom had her hands around Emma's neck, screaming abuse at her

The guards were pretty on the ball though and hauled her off my sister before slapping handcuffs on her. Even as they dragged her from the room, she was still screaming profanities and abuse at Emma and even aimed a few at me. It wasn't anything I hadn't heard before.

As the her yells faded down the corridor, the room was dead silent, everyone was staring at us. As the whispers started, two prison guards ushered us back to David. While they spoke to him, I started to cry.

I have seen Mom lose it plenty of times, but never has she tried to strangle us. And she meant it, the bruising was already starting to show on Emma's neck. Emma put her arm around my shoulders.

'I'm okay, Stella.' She assured me. 'This just proves she can't behave herself, even with a room full of corrective services personnel watching.'

Our interviews with the police happened a few days later, Emma and I were taken to separate rooms. Edith stayed with me while David went with Emma. After hours and hours of seemingly endless questions, I was exhausted. It took a lot of effort to speak to the police but I knew it was important and tried my hardest. The two cops interviewing me were patient, luckily enough, and didn't rush me or make me feel stupid while I struggled to string my answers together.

I found out Emma had been keeping a very detailed and carefully dated set of diaries of what had been going on in the house since she was 8. Now, almost 5 years later, she had 3 separate diaries. She gave them to the police.

It would be interesting to see what came of those. Emma and I had quite a few hospital visits to our names. I had suffered a broken arm and concussion when I was five, Mom told the staff I'd fallen off the swing when in reality, one of her boyfriends had kicked me down the stairs. No one at the hospital thought to ask a crying little girl what the truth was. That was the incident that made Emma start writing in the diaries. She hoped they would match the events in her diaries with the reports from the hospitals and the truth would come out.

* * *

Finally, it was time for the Fellowship to leave Rivendell. I admit I had forgotten completely about old Bill and I felt bad about that for the pony never seemed to mind me perching on top of him. He looked very good now, his coat was sleek and shiny and carried himself proudly.

It was almost dark so I was once again perched on Bill. The city was silent as we left, it was strange for the elves to be so quiet. No singing or laughing, just quiet farewells. When we all turned to get our last look at Rivendell, I was very sad, I knew I probably wouldn't see this place again.

* * *

I spent most of my time in the air, floating on the currents and keeping an eye out for enemies. The first part of the journey was actually quite boring and cold. And the Company traveled at night, trying to sleep during the day. For me, this wouldn't work as I couldn't see well enough at night to hunt. So I was awake during the day and slept at night, perched on Bill or on Aragorn's shoulder.

I think it was about two weeks later the _crebain _made their appearance. The weather was a little better, the cold wind had settled and the sun was shining brightly. I got back from hunting to find they had risked a small fire but left them to it while I focused on the lizard I had caught.

Everyone's mood was greatly improved by their warm meal. My meals were always warm so it made no difference to me. It was me that spotted the birds first, the dark cloud in the distance.

I screeched and flapped my wings, getting Legolas' and Aragorn's attention. The Company scrambled to hide. Unlike that crow thing I had killed a while ago, these ones weren't quiet. They screeched and squawked as they flew over head. Their numbers were so great they blotted out the sun.

They didn't stay long but Aragorn was convinced we had been seen, what else would make them turn around and go back the way they came? Didn't matter now though for we were heading for Caradhras. I wasn't looking forward to this since I knew I was going to freeze my feathers off.

You know, Aragorn and Gandalf talk too much. About what, you ask? I have no freaking clue and I didn't have the attention span to try and keep up. Anyway, I didn't hear much talking from the Company as I was either asleep or flying high above them.

Standing at the base of Caradhras, my only thought was that this was a big-ass mountain. The tip of it was hidden in cloud. The whole thing looked dark and gloomy. This was going to be fun…not.

As I watched the Company struggle as the climb got steeper, I was even more grateful that I had wings and was small enough to hitch a ride on a shoulder or the pony when I was tired.

Just as I suspected, Frodo soon lost his footing and fell, sliding down the mountain. It was almost comical to see Aragorn running after him. Boromir picked up the Ring and was taking a lot longer to give it back to Frodo than he did in the movie.

Seeing Aragorn getting agitated, I whipped past Boromir, snatching the chain from his hand as I raced past him in grey blur. Banking hard, I turned and dropped the Ring on Frodo before landing on Aragorn's shoulder. I screeched at Boromir pointedly.

I didn't like touching the Ring, it was really heavy and gave me the heebie jeebies. Frodo could have it all to himself. Now that Frodo had the Ring back, Aragorn helped him back up the mountain to where the others were waiting.

All too soon, the snow got deeper and it also began to fall from the sky. It was bitterly cold already, Pippin was carrying me, wrapped in his cloak. The poor hobbit was freezing his butt off too.

The weather developed into a full blown snow storm as we got higher up the mountain. Everyone was struggling through the snow except for Legolas, who strolled along on top of it.

_ Damn you, floaty elf._

The snow was stinging my eyes and I pressed myself into Pippin's chest. Was I going to freeze to death? I would be pissed if I did, I didn't want my Lord of the Rings adventure to end because a mountain is throwing a bitch fit.

Said bitchy mountain then threw rocks on us. We ended up huddling under a sorry excuse for a shelter, a shallow overhang. I was snuggled up to Strider now, hiding under his cloak in an attempt to keep warm and out of the icy blasts. My feathers were at full puff but I was struggling to maintain my body heat.

Gandalf pulled out a flask containing _miruvor, _some fancy pants drink the elves made. Aragorn gave me some too, it was surprisingly warm and sweet and made me feel a little better.

With Gandalf using some magic, he got a fire going but it made little difference, it was like the wind blew the heat away as it emerged from the flames. It was nice to have one though.

But, after what had to be the longest night of my life, it looked like dawn was beginning to break and the storm was losing its power. The Company admitted defeat and decided to head back down. It wasn't without difficulty though, the snow was very deep, forcing Boromir and Aragorn to basically plough a path for the others. The highlight of the morning for me was catching a young snow hare, I was starving.

Bring on Moria, I say. Even though the thought of what would happen in there filled me with dread.

* * *

** Another shortish one but I promise the Moria chapter will be longer because I have more to work with :D It's funny, some chapters are easy to write, others are like pulling teeth but I am determined to get through it. Until next time, please review 3 I get very excited to see them ;)**


	8. March Through Moria

** Greetings everybody, here is the next chapter :) Hope you enjoy it, this one was more fun to write!**

* * *

**CHAPTER SEVEN**

When we finally stopped again, it was getting dark. They were deciding on where to go next, I already knew where we were going so I paid more attention to eating the rodent thing I'd snatched off a branch. It looked like a mouse with big fluffy ears, I didn't care what it was, it was tasty.

And oh my God, these males took a long time to decide anything. Boromir seemed very superstitious to me, he seemed to see bad omens in absolutely everything! But finally, just before I gave into the temptation to bang my head repeatedly against a rock, the decision was made to go to Moria.

Thankfully, my dream world decided to spare us being attacked by the wolves. Maybe because we had such a sucky time on the mountain, we were given a reprieve.

* * *

As soon as dawn approached, Gandalf lead us towards Moria, Gimli was rather excited. The others, not so much. I wasn't either. Gollum was sneaking around in there somewhere, then there were orcs, cave trolls and who could forget the Balrog? Not to mention there were probably other icky things scuttling around.

Gimli and Gandalf seemed to know where they were going because I could not see a path of any kind. Rocks, rocks and oh look, more rocks, how exciting. Not. We came a dead end eventually and I was about to huff in annoyance when I recognised something familiar. The creepy lake, complete with kraken. Shit, I forgot about Squidward.

I knew the doors were here but I couldn't see them for the life of me. Poor Sam had to let Bill go, I liked that pony. Sam took it harder than everyone though, he was in tears while he said goodbye.

'You said there were doors here, Gandalf, I see no doors.' Merry spoke up, squinting at the solid rock.

'Dwarf-doors are hidden when shut.' Gimli explained. 'They are invisible, and their own masters cannot find or open them when their secret is forgotten.'

_ Well, that's just fucking stupid! How can you lose a door? Ooh, pretty._

As I was ranting to myself, the moon came out and the door began to show up. Threads of light, like a spider web, fanned across the rock face and grew brighter as the outline took shape. I could see Elvish writing on it, they looked like squiggles.

'The doors of Durin, Lord of Moria. Speak, friend, and enter.' Gandalf read out to the others.

'What does that mean?' Merry asked.

Simple enough.' Gimli replied. 'If you are a friend, speak the password and the doors will open.'

'Do you know the word, Gandalf?' Boromir asked the wizard as he stepped forward to examine the door.

'No.'

I was so tempted to put my wing up and jump up and down.

_ Me! Me, me, me, pick me! I know the answer!_

But I didn't. Instead, I had to suffer through watching them all think about it, the answer was RIGHT THERE! It was just about smacking them in the face but they couldn't see the forest for the trees.

I have to admit though, it was highly amusing to watch Gandalf get more and more frustrated after each failed attempt to open the door. He actually threw is staff down in a huff, it reminded me of Emma stamping her foot when she didn't get her way.

It was Boromir who threw the first rock into the pool, out of frustration and the rock created ripples far too big for a small stone.

_ Damn you, Boromir, you woke up Squidward._

I shifted nervously and flitted to Gandalf's shoulder, if I remembered rightly, he didn't get involved in the struggle with the kraken so I decided to stick with him. I think he was joking, but Gandalf asked me if I knew the answer.

Sighing and rolling my eyes as best I could, I nodded and pointed my wing at Legolas.

'Elf?' Pippin guessed, I shook my head and pointed again.

'No, not elf, she means the Elvish word for friend!' Gandalf exclaimed excitedly. '_Mellon.'_

The doors opened painfully slowly, I was hopping from foot to foot, nervous about the monster about to chase us into the mines. As soon as Gandalf set foot on the first step, I heard Frodo cry out.

I couldn't help it, I had to look, and I immediately wished I hadn't. There it was, in all its' slimy glory was the kraken. From memory, I think the thing is called The Watcher or something but I still kept calling it a kraken, who was anyone to say it wasn't?

It was dragging Frodo into the water, Sam was trying to free him, using a small knife to hack at the tentacle holding him. As I predicted, it was Aragorn, Boromir and Legolas who went to Frodo's aid.

The Fellowship ran into the mines and the kraken actually slammed the doors behind us, basically trapping us inside. At least it didn't chase us in like it did in the movie. It was dark in here…whoopee. As we followed Gandalf's lit staff, I perched on Sam's shoulder, I knew he was still upset about sending Bill away. And I was upset because Boromir's "it's not a mine, it's a tomb" scene never came into play. Damn.

* * *

Initially, we were moving at a good pace but as we progressed, the path became more treacherous and difficult. Large holes and fissures made the Fellowship have to slow down in order to pick their way through the hazards.

I had no idea where we were until we got to the part where Gandalf had to stop and think of where to go next. The others took advantage and had a rest, Legolas gave me some of his water. No one had any problems sharing their food or water with me, I only consumed a small amount at a time.

The well was in here and Pippin just couldn't help himself, he just had to drop a rock in it. Gandalf yelled at him for a while but I was more concerned about the drum beats. I was too anxious to fall asleep but I must have eventually because Gandalf was soon waking everybody up. He had figured out which way to go and was keen to get moving again.

We found ourselves in a huge hall, the blackness of it was rather disconcerting. From the light given from Gandalf's staff, however, it would have been an impressive sight back in its' day. It was here we rested again, I didn't like it. The hall felt too open and who knew what was lurking in the dark.

I managed to fall asleep though, perched on top of one of the packs.

* * *

Today at school I got a very bad fright. Emma and I walked to school unless the weather was really bad, it was only about a mile from home. On this day, I was by myself as Emma had the flu so she got to stay home.

I was about halfway to school when I noticed a car was following me, the driver was wearing sunglasses but I couldn't see much else. I tried to brush it off as me being paranoid. Unfortunately, I wasn't.

The car jerked to a stop beside me and a man jumped out of the back seat, trying to grab me. He got my backpack and tried to pull me towards the car, I slipped out of it and took off down the street, crying. The man was chasing after me and quickly gaining. I was terrified! I had no idea who he was, why was he chasing me?

When I saw Brett Ramsay about to head to work, I made a beeline for him. I knew him quite well, his Mom was friends with Edith and I've seen him and his wife, Nikki, often. Nikki sometimes babysat me if Emma wasn't home to do it.

He was a Marine and dressed in his fatigues. He was unlocking his car when I basically threw myself at him, crying my eyes out.

'Stella? What…?' He stopped talking, the car had sped off, screeching the tires. There was no sign of the man.

I was so distraught, I couldn't speak. Thankfully, Brett appeared to piece together what had happened and took me inside. Nikki sat with me on the sofa while he called the police. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't stop crying. She had her arms around me, it was a little awkward as she was heavily pregnant, but she persisted anyway.

David got there just before the police did, Edith was at home with Emma. They hadn't told my sister yet because they knew she would be charging over here ready to kill somebody. Even though we sometimes beat the shit out of eachother, she wouldn't let anyone else lay a hand on me.

The police spoke to Brett first who was able to tell them a lot more than I could. I was too upset to talk to them at first but finally managed to stumble my way through an explantion. Brett had seen the number plate, which was lucky, because I could only give a vague description of the man who grabbed me and the only thing I could remember about the car was that it was dark green.

David took me home, I wasn't going to school that day. The police had found my school bag and given it back to me. When I walked in the door, Emma pounced on me, checking me for injury.

It was a tense day in the house, I didn't leave Emma's side. I ended up catching the flu from her because I spent too much time in close contact with my germy sister, but I didn't care. David drove us to and from school now, even Brett took us a couple of times when David was held up or busy.

In the end, the police found and caught the men responsible. They were friends of Brian's, he had supposedly got them to take me or Emma for ransom to get him out of jail. It really shook Emma and I up, we thought we were safe.

* * *

I bit Boromir. It was an accident, I swear. Still jumpy from the botched kidnapping, I had been startled awake by Boromir poking me and I bit him on instinct. It was very lucky he was wearing gloves otherwise my beak would have done some serious damage to his hand. Even with the glove on, I still managed to pinch him pretty hard.

I felt terrible and wanted to cry, but falcons can't physically cry which is very frustrating. Boromir wasn't mad at me but I had given him a fright. Hell, I had given myself a fright too.

To make me feel worse, we soon came to the chamber where the battle takes place. There was Balin's tomb in the middle of it, Gimli looked very troubled. We stood around the tomb for a moment, silent and lost in our own thoughts.

The evidence of a very violent battle was strewn across the chamber, broken weapons from both sides littered the ground. I saw one helmet which was crushed on one side, I'd hate to think what happened to the skull occupying that helmet.

Gandalf found the old, dusty book. He began reading parts of it out loud, I wasn't listening, I knew what was going to happen and was eyeing the door nervously. I almost fell off Legolas' shoulder when a resounding boom sounded from the deep, I swear the walls shook.

I sought out a higher perch, horns and shrill cries sounded down the halls. They are coming. The door was barricaded and the Fellowship drew their weapons, the hobbits looked absolutely terrified. I thought it best to stay out of the way for now and help if I could.

The door shook and shuddered as something very heavy threw itself against it. It soon gave way under the strain and a huge, fugly cave troll forced itself into the room, followed by orcs. Oh God, did they stink. And they were even uglier than they were in the movies and that is saying something because the makeup artists did a brilliant job.

I watched the fight carefully and I really shouldn't have interfered, but I did. I couldn't help it. When the cave troll went after Frodo, I launched myself at its' face, scratching at the eyes in a move inspired by Fawkes on the Basilisk.

It swung blindly, trying to get me off and managed to catch me in a glancing blow. I hit a pillar and crashed into an awkward heap on the ground, winded and rather dazed. And the stupid troll still managed to catch Frodo in the guts.

* * *

Aragorn picked Frodo up, Legolas grabbed me and handed me to Merry. I don't think I was mortally wounded but I hurt all over and my feathers were ruffled. We ran, I found it hard to keep track of what was happening. I think I had hit my head and everything felt distorted.

For an old man, Gandalf could moved pretty fast. He lead the way, there were so many stairs, I could hear Merry breathing hard. Gandalf knew something very bad was on our tail and even if I had the ability, I doubt I would have had the heart to tell him what was after us. The Balrog.

When I first saw the Bridge of Khazad-Dûm, I was grateful that I was a bird. If I had been human then someone would have had to carry me across that narrow, sorry excuse for a bridge as I wouldn't have crossed it on my own, Balrog or no Balrog.

Orcs were firing arrows at us but that was a trivial matter when the Balrog approached. The others didn't seem to know what it was at first, I did and I was shaking with fright.

'Ai! A Balrog! A Balrog has come!' There was Legolas, right on cue.

The Balrog wasn't quite as big as the movie portrayed but it was still scary as Hell. It reminded me of the Cyberdemon from the Doom game except it didn't have the big rocket launcher. Thank goodness for that, it's deadly enough without it!

I looked sadly at Gandalf, it would be the last time I see him for a while. Gandalf drove us across the Bridge, staying behind to face the enemy alone. All we could do was watch helplessly. I couldn't hear what he was saying, until he shouted the ever-famous words "You shall not pass" and struck the Bridge with his staff.

Bright white light left us momentarily blinded, but we could hear the Bridge cracking, breaking right at the Balrog's feet and sending it into the seemingly bottomless chasm below. The Fellowship breathed a sigh of relief, I didn't, because at that moment, the fiery whip rose up and caught Gandalf around the legs, dragging him after the monster.

He clung briefly to the edge. 'Fly, you fools!' Were his last words before he fell.

* * *

Aragorn took charge, Boromir had to drag a hysterical Frodo along with him. We followed after the Ranger, we could see light now and were heading for it as fast as possible. Finally, we emerged from the dark and stuffy mountain and into bright sunlight, the fresh air was very welcome.

Once we were out of range of any archers, Aragorn let us stop. I was well enough to perch on a rock now, I was still very sore but I would be alright. It was hard to see the others grieve for Gandalf, I was the only one who knew he would come back. But still, it isn't pleasant to see someone "die" like that, even if I knew it wasn't permanent.

I guess we were going to be heading to Lothlórien. Galadriel was there, I wonder if she would know who I truly was? In either case, I was eager to get there and have some rest. We all needed it.

* * *

** There you go, please tell me what you think so far. I am trying to do updates more frequently for you and I am enjoying writing it. I was going to try and combine the Moria and Lothlórien segments into the same chapter but it would take a lot longer to update. Until next time...**


	9. The Dreamwalker

** Hi everyone, here is chapter eight! I actually had this half written already when I uploaded the last chapter but I have been so busy! It is very late here at the moment so I hope I make sense and my sleep-deprived mind hasn't done anything weird. Enjoy :)**

* * *

**CHAPTER EIGHT**

Aragorn didn't let us stay still for long, the hobbits were still sobbing as they got to their feet. I was perched on Pippin's shoulder, too sore and stiff to fly right now. The sun was the only thing keeping the orcs in the mountain, we had to keep moving.

It was nice to be outside again, I was tempted to take to the sky and ride the currents but I felt like shit. Maybe tomorrow.

I was dozing off when I heard Legolas say something about Lothlórien, in the distance was a golden haze which the elf was pointing out. Then he started going on about how pretty the trees were and blah blah blah. Damn treehugger. I get it, the trees are nice but there is no need to recite sappy poetry about them. Hmm…I was in a bad mood.

Despite being injured, Frodo and Sam managed to keep up with everyone for quite some time. I was still on Pippin's shoulder, carefully rearranging my feathers, some of my tail and wing feathers were a little crumpled but still functional.

I was so focused on fixing my feathers, I hadn't noticed Sam and Frodo falling behind until Legolas called it to Aragorn's attention. Aragorn felt bad he had forgotten all about them and also me being slammed into the pillar.

While Aragorn attended to the hobbits, Legolas gave me a check over. He felt along my wings, checking for breaks but apart from being tender to touch on my back and on the wing I'd hit the pillar with, I was alright.

After asking me to flap my wings, Legolas realised I was too sore to fly well enough to hunt. I believed I could get airborne but the finesse required for hunting was a bit too much of an ask right now.

I heard Aragorn laugh and turned to see him holding up the mithril shirt that had prevented Frodo being getting skewered.

_ Ooh, shiny!_

It was so pretty, Frodo looked a right bloody mess though. He had some nasty bruises and I could see the spot where the spear had struck him. I didn't see anymore though, for I was distracted by Merry bringing me a lizard he'd caught with his bare hands.

'Here, I heard Legolas say you couldn't hunt.' He told me.

_ Aww, you sweet little hobbit!_

He set it on the ground in front of me and I pounced on it before it could scurry away. Even though I would eat what the Fellowship did when I had no other options, I preferred fresh kills and this was the first one I'd had in days.

Aragorn had still had some _athelas _left from the bunch I'd gathered for him, they were dried now but still retained a lot of their healing properties. I felt better just by smelling it and I was just about ready for another snooze. It was getting dark when we headed off anyway, so I settled on Merry's shoulder and went to sleep.

* * *

I got my first report card today since living with my grandparents and for once, I was proud to show it to Edith and David. Emma, had always been a straight A student which is a damn good effort considering our shitty upbringing. My last report card had been abysmal and the comments from my teacher stating I was unattentive in class, didn't contribute and was standoffish.

When I showed Mom, she had just snorted at me and told me I took after my father and wouldn't amount to anything either. I had been so upset until I watched Emma show Mom her report card and got called a snotty little smartass, I realised then I couldn't win either way.

My latest report card wasn't great, but the comments from the teacher stating that I was trying hard and had a talent for creative story writing made me so happy. My grades had improved though, I had passed everything this term which had never happened before. Mostly Cs but I did get an B for English and Gym.

I had showed Emma first, she was so happy for me. She had gotten an A for everything, as usual. David and Edith were pleased with the report cards and treated us to dinner at a local pizza joint.

When they met with my teacher, she suggested that I get extra tutoring for a while. She told Edith that I was a little behind the other students and could benefit from having a tutor. So, three days a week, a college student named Michael, came to the house after school to help me with my school work. He was studying to be an elementary school teacher and tutored students both to gain experience and to put himself through his classes. I really liked him, he didn't make me feel stupid.

So with tutoring, speech therapy which I did at school with three other students for an hour two days a week and swimming lessons, my schedule was quite busy. I didn't want to do swimming lessons, but I couldn't actually swim and Emma was a weak swimmer at best. David and Edith told us to put up with them until we were confident in the water.

* * *

When we were told the Dad wanted us to visit him in prison, Emma and I were terrified, especially after the trauma of visiting Mom. Dad's presence in the house had always been unstable, he would disappear for weeks at a time. I was scared of him. He was big, loud and rather slap-happy.

He was a worse drunk than Mom. Mom would drink herself stupid with vodka and pass out on the couch, we only had to dodge her when she was sobering up. When Dad was drunk, he was downright sadistic.

I remember he would chase us around the house, he was scarily fast for a man who was completely off his face. He beat us regularly but the mind games were worse. There was one memory I had from when I was very young. I was hungry and Dad was eating chips. I wanted some but he said I could only have some if I answered his questions correctly.

At the time, I thought they were ridiculously hard so I never got them right which meant I got no food. But now, I realise his questions weren't hard at all. They simply made no sense because he was drunk off his ass.

Turns out, there was a reason Dad wanted to see us. When we saw him, we were surprised. He looked so… normal, even dressed in prison clothes. I don't remember a time when I've seen him fully sober.

He wanted to apologise to us for being a terrible father and hurting us. To prove he was being serious about the apology, he had given up his rights as a parent to David and Edith. Dad explained that he would mostly likely be in prison until I was in college. He had no assets, no money, an extensive criminal record, an abusive history and would be locked up for a long time.

'I wasn't a father to you and can't be one now.' He'd told us. 'But I can do the right thing now so you two have a chance to make something of yourselves and not follow in my or your mother's footsteps.'

I hadn't really understood what he meant until Emma explained it to me later. Bascially, Dad was letting us go so we could get back on track. He knew we didn't, and probably never could, trust him or see him as a caregiver.

It was also goodbye, we most likely wouldn't see him again and I found that I didn't really care. Dad was my father because he got my mother pregnant, other than that, he was a stranger.

Emma actually gave him one last hug when he asked for one, I refused and hid behind David. Dad looked a little hurt but I think he understood why I wouldn't go near him. I couldn't do it, it was instinct to run away from him, not give him a hug.

* * *

I was woken up by Legolas getting rather excited about reaching the edge of Lothlórien. It was still dark. I yawned and let out an irritable huff, I was having a good sleep. Boromir kicked up a stink about going through the woods but we really didn't have any other options.

It wasn't long before we came across the Nimrodel, the stream that had healing properties. The Company decided to have a rest after crossing it so I treated myself to a bath in the shallows. The water was cold but strangely therapeutic on my sore body. I hadn't had a good bath for a while so I rather enjoyed myself. When I went back to the others, Legolas was singing. I listened while I preened myself, relishing the fact that my feathers were nice and clean.

After our little break, Aragorn lead us off the path, deeper into the woods. He decided that it would be safer to try and spend the night in the tree tops. The enormous grey _Mellyrn _trees surrounded us, I wouldn't even dare guess their height.

I didn't mind spending the night in a tree, I was a bird after all. But the others didn't seem to share my or Legolas' enthusiasm. While the elf headed to a tree, intending to climb up, I was looking upwards, trying to see the elves I knew were hiding up there. They were either very well hidden or I had the wrong tree.

_'Daro!' _A commanding voice came from the top of the tree I was looking at. So they were there.

Legolas was speaking to them, I had no idea what they were saying. Apparently they wanted Legolas and Frodo to go up to them while the rest of us stayed on the ground. A rope was lowered down, it was ridiculously thin but stronger than it looked for Legolas climbed it without a problem. Screw this, I was going up too.

I passed Frodo and Sam who were still on the ladder and up to the _talan _where Legolas was sitting with three other elves. Those elves were hard to see in the dark, their cloaks blending in with the tree almost perfectly. I landed on Legolas' shoulder, peering curiously at the new elves. Their faces were hidden so I couldn't figure out which one was Haldir.

One of them spoke and held a lantern up to me. He must be asking about me. Frodo and Sam finally got here. Haldir introduced himself, the other two elves were his brothers, Rúmil and Orophin.

While Haldir spoke with Legolas and the hobbits, I went to see what Rúmil and Orophin were doing, walking across the wooden boards towards them. It was easy to tell they were Haldir's brothers, but each one did look different.

Orophin reached his hand out, slowly, I guessed he was wondering if I would let him touch me or I would bite his fingers. He scratched my head, a lot of birds liked getting their heads scratched. My class at school had a pet parakeet who was always demanding head scritches, as in he would headbutt your fingers until you did so.

* * *

It seemed a decision was made for we were soon joined by Merry and Pippin while Legolas went down the ladder. I guess the others were in the next tree. The hobbits were delighted to get a second dinner before settling down to sleep and trying to ignore the fact they were so high off the ground.

I didn't want to sleep so I sat with the elves who talked quietly to eachother. Only Haldir and Orophin were here, Rúmil had gone to the lower branches to keep watch. After a couple of hours, I noticed the elves tense, appearing to be listening to something. Without a word, they quickly left. I remained perched on Frodo's pack, the orcs must be getting near.

And fair enough, I heard them, they were making little effort to stay quiet. I heard a gasp and turned to see Frodo sitting up, one of the elves was back but he simply threw the ladder onto the flet before disappearing again.

Seeing Frodo was awake, I went to him, sitting on his knee.

'Orcs?' He whispered to me, I nodded.

The woods fell strangely silent, even the leaves were still. It was spooky. But though the orcs had passed us, I could hear something. An odd snuffling noise. We looked at eachother, confirming the other had heard the same thing.

We crept to the opening in the flet for the ladder and peered down, there was something at the bottom of the three.

_ Oh, that must be Gollum. Hurry up, Haldir, and run him off already._

The dark, spindly figure of Gollum was making his way up the tree, hissing softly. Damn it, if Haldir didn't turn up soon I was going to have to launch myself down there and scratch Gollum's face off.

Luckily, I didn't have to. For Gollum ran away when Haldir slipped around the trunk of the tree. He swiftly made his way up to the flet and was rather confused by what was skulking around.

At first light, I felt well enough to go hunting and took to the air. I was still sore but it felt great to be properly airborne again. I caught a bird of some sort, snatching it from the air and heading back to the others.

* * *

Haldir and Rumil were guiding us now, we set out early, the hobbits were still yawning. Me, on the other hand, was feeling much better and zoomed around the Company, chasing the brightly coloured butterflies flitting about. I didn't catch them, they were fragile things and I couldn't eat them so there was no point in harming them. Instead, I practiced barrel rolls and sharp, banking turns, wheeling about in the air. It was fun.

After a while though, I decided to sit on Haldir's shoulder, the elf looked rather startled when I landed on him.

_ Hello, Haldir!_

He didn't shoo me away so I took this as permission to stay where I was. We seemed to be following a path but eventually we turned off it and stood on the banks of a very wide and fast moving river. Ooh, I remember this part, it's the rope bridge. And then the argument about Gimli being blindfolded. Will I be blindfolded? I'd better not be, if they try to blindfold me they'll feel how sharp my beak is. Besides, they'd have to catch me first!

Haldir let out a whistle which I just had to try and mimic, it was harder than I thought. An elf on the opposite bank appeared and threw a coil of silver rope to Haldir, it was an impressive throw. If a human me had thrown it, the rope would be floating downstream and the Company would be laughing.

It took ages for them to cross, Legolas basically skipped across while the hobbits shuffled along slowly. Poor Sam looked very nervous, he can't swim. As for me, I didn't have to cross the bridge so I circled above it instead, watching my companions cross over.

I perched on a branch and watched the argument about blindfolding commence. Of course, Gimli was understandably angry. But then Legolas was pitching a fit because he felt insulted to be blindfolded in a Realm of his own kin, which was also understandable.

But Aragorn, being the voice of reason, managed to calm everyone down. Everyone was to be blindfolded.

'What of the bird?' Haldir asked Aragorn.

_ Yes, what of "the bird"? How rude._

'You can try, but you will most likely lose a few fingers.' Aragorn shrugged. 'And you would have to catch her first.'

'You cannot call her down?'

'She understood everything you just said and will most likely not come if I call her. In saying that, Shadow does not follow commands. Mostly, she is an agreeable creature, but you will not get a blindfold on her.'

Haldir gazed up at me, I fluffed my feathers and narrowed my eyes.

_ Bring it, bitch._

He sighed, defeated, and had his companions blindfold the Company. Legolas was still huffy so I sat on his shoulder, he reached up to touch my feathers briefly but remained silent.

We marched on all day, I only left once to catch myself a meal. To get revenge on Haldir for upsetting my friends, I perched on his shoulder while I devoured a vole I'd caught and made a little more mess than was necessary.

'Argh, must you eat that while sitting on my shoulder?' Haldir muttered, looking at my mangled lunch with disgust.

I nodded, swallowed the rest of the vole and looked back at the rest of the Fellowship, Legolas and Gimli were smirking. All of them had seen me eat and knew what Haldir was experiencing.

It took two days roughly to reach the actual city, we met a group of elves who spoke briefly to Haldir before marching off.

'They bring a message from the Lord and Lady. You are to all walk free, even the dwarf. It seems the Lady knows who and what is each member of your Company…'

I didn't hear anymore. She knew who and what? Does that mean she knew what I really was? She shouldn't, even Professor Snape couldn't get a read on my real life when invading my mind. But Galadriel bore a different magic, a very powerful one, maybe she could see who I am. But was that good or bad?

I fretted over this all the way to the city, perched on Legolas' shoulder. Aragorn must have sensed my distraction for he asked me. 'What are you thinking so hard about?'

Obviously, it was a rhetorical question for I couldn't answer him in a language he could understand.

* * *

Night was falling when we finally reached Caras Galadhon, I could see lights up in the trees. For some stupid reason of elf logic, there was no northern gate so we had to go to the southern entrance.

I was bored, singing songs in my head as we travelled. The path was white which soon sent me into a mental rendition of songs from the Wizard of Oz. Finally though, we crossed a white bridge and stopped at the closed gates. Haldir knocked and spoke, the gates opened but I couldn't see anyone. As we passed through the gates, I looked for the guards but couldn't see them. Once we were through, the gates shut. By themselves! How do they do that?

We couldn't see anyone. Well, I knew I couldn't. Legolas probably could. But I could hear singing up in the tree tops. I was dozing off while the Company was lead through seemingly endless stairs and pathways until we stopped at the bottom of a huge staircase. Some elvish guards stood as we approached.

'Here dwell Celeborn and Galadriel.' Haldir explained. 'It is their wish that you should ascend and speak with them.'

It was a very, very long staircase. Lucky for me, I had wings and walking perches, I was still on Legolas' shoulder as he climbed, and climbed, and climbed, and shit, will this damn staircase ever end? I was so tempted just to fly up there but didn't want to face the elves up there alone.

But we made it. I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw. We were now on an enormous _talan_, as in so big it would be a pain in the ass to get termites. A huge house loomed above us, Haldir lead us into a chamber filled with light. There were many elves in here.

Then I saw them, seated under a canopy was Celeborn and Galadriel. I'm sorry, Peter, but you really didn't do Galadriel justice. She was beautiful, if she had white wings she would look like an angel. Her hair wasn't blonde, it was gold, you couldn't call it blonde.

Both of them stood up, they were very tall and imposing. Celeborn invited Frodo to sit beside him until the others dragged their exhausted butts up the stairs. As each one arrived, Celeborn greeted them by name.

Once everyone arrived, Celeborn spoke to them. I had my own mission, I was saying random things in my head, trying to figure out if Galadriel could hear me or not. Since I was getting no reaction, I was almost convinced that she couldn't but before I could breathe a sigh of relief, her eyes flicked to me for a moment.

_ Shiiiit._

She looked away again and now I was arguing with myself that she could hear me. But then why wasn't she answering me? I have to admire her multi-tasking skills, being able to have both verbal and mental conversations at the same time. She set her gaze on each of the Fellowship, even me.

Legolas and Aragorn held her gaze, the others couldn't. I froze when she looked at me.

_ Indeed, I can hear you, Stella. I will not reveal your true identity to the others for there is no reason too, but I do wish to speak with you later._

Only just did I stop my beak dropping open in shock. She could hear me! Then…oh, she could hear all of my attempts to get her attention. If I could blush, I would be. How embarrassing!

Celeborn earned some brownie points from me when he dismissed us so we could rest and so I could escape Galadriel's gaze.

_ Scary elf lady. Oops! I didn't mean it! I mean, I did, but not for you…damn, I'll shut up now._

We slept on the ground, under a pavilion that had been set up. I mentally laughed at Aragorn when he dropped onto his couch and fell asleep straight away, I perched nearby, looking around at the pretty city.

The others fell asleep before me, it was very late but I was no longer tired. What gives? Ah, Galadriel must be responsible. Fair enough, she came into sight. She said nothing but raised her arm, beckoning me.

_ But my talons…_

She wore no glove or thick sleeve, I feared my talons would shred her arm and the sheer fabric covering it to pieces.

_ It will be fine. Come._

I swooped over to her, landing lightly on her arm and trying to simultaneously keep my balance and not dig my sharp, curved talons into her skin. She carried me down a long flight of steps to where her mirror resided. She set me on the side of it before turning to collect water from the stream to fill the basin.

'Here is the Mirror of Galadriel.' She said softly. 'I have bought you here so you may look in it, if you please.'

I hesitated, what would it show me?

_ Should I look?_

'I cannot answer that, I am not a counsellor. It is up to you.'

My curiosity got the better of me, again. I looked into the water. At once, I saw my reflection. Not my current one, but my human form. The nine year old human girl, with light brown hair and grey eyes. She smiled at me before her form changed, she was showing me my other dreams, the forms I had taken when exploring the other worlds. It was strange seeing them from another perspective.

After what seemed like an eternity, the vision faded and I was once again looking at water. Slowly, I looked up at Galadriel.

'Do you know what you are, Stella?'

_A falcon?_

'No, little one.' She replied patiently. 'I mean your ability to visit other worlds. You are what is called a Dreamwalker. They are very, very rare, I have not seen one for many years. In fact, I was still an elfling when I met one. He was like you, but a Walker from a different world to yours.

'A Walker is born once every millennium but only once to each reality and only one exists at a time. I suppose in time, there may be a double up, but it is almost impossible. You are the first, and most likely the only, Walker to be born on Earth. We have not had a Walker born in Middle Earth but they have visited here in the past.'

I was shocked, I didn't know there was actually a name for what I could do! And that there had been others.

'I thought you should know, Stella.' Galadriel said to me. 'It concerned me you did not fully understand what you were, I am afraid your upbringing has hindered your ability to find it out for yourself.'

_ Thankyou for telling me._

Galadriel smiled and trailed her fingers down my back.

'You may go back now.' She told me. 'And for the record, elves do not have curse words. But that is not to say that they do not swear in other languages.'

_Oh, she heard that one._

The elf looked amused though and sent me on my way. I landed back on Aragorn's couch. As I settled down to sleep, I was thinking about what Galadriel had shown me, it seemed surreal. She could actually talk to me, as me, not a bird. A Dreamwalker, huh? Cool.

* * *

** Well, there you go, I am so tired right now. On the bright side though, I can walk short distances now :) Swimming is really helping me recover. Please review :)**


	10. A Quick Update

** Hi everyone, this isn't a chapter. I just want to let you know that I haven't forgotten about this story. Currently, I am studying my butt off for finals and also have two applications for promotions due very soon so I am far too busy to update. But I will get there, eventually. Hang in there :)**


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